Animal Gone Wild [DISCONTINUED]

46

PIPSQUEAK

We walked with purpose through the walkers. Traveling through them without much issue, getting as far as the lake before we came to a stop. Carl, Michonne, and I kept watch.
"All right," Rick whispered, "new plan. Flares from a few guns aren't enough. Too many walkers, too spread out. We're not going to the armory. We need our vehicles back at the quarry. All of us drive. We'll need to round 'em up. We leave, we come back."
"Okay," Jessie agreed, "but Judith...to the quarry and back, I..."
"I'll take her," Gabriel promoted, "keep her safe in my church until you all lead the walkers away."
"Can you do this," Michonne voiced, turning to face Gabriel.
"I'm supposed to. I have to. I will."
"He's got my vote," I shrugged, "because I'm sure he knows if one hair is missing from Judith's head..."
Gabriel turned and stared at me, "I know."
I smirked slightly before giving a nod at Rick who looked directly at Carl. Carl agreed, and they switched off.
"Take Sam," Jessie offered.
"No," Sam denied.
"Yes, Sam, it'll be safer."
"I'm not leaving you."
"Sam-"
"Mom, I'm not. I can keep going."
"Sam-"
"I can keep going. Please."
I kept my thoughts to myself about the matter of the kid coming with us. I knew I'd get shot down by Rick about the ordeal.
"Please. Let's just go."
Jessie agreed. I refrained from rolling my eyes. This wasn't even the time to pick a fight about it.
"I'm going to keep her safe," Gabriel promised.
"Thank you," Rick whispered, "do you want June to go with you? Just in case?"
"No, she's needed here."
So, Gabriel continued to walk by himself. I watched him walk away, filling me with worry.
"Hey," Jessie comforted Rick, "he's gonna make it."
As much as I wanted to believe her like Rick did, the worry was still there.
"Hey," Carl comforted, seeing my worry before anyone else, "emergency okay?"
I nodded, "yeah. Yeah I know pipsqueak."
So we continued on. Rick leading, taking Sam's hand, followed by Jessie, Carl, Ron, Michonne, and I. We walked for hours on end at a slow pace, considering the amount of walkers there were.

It was dark, and I don't think we made it as far as Rick really wanted to be but we didn't really have much of a choice. At some point, Sam made us stop since he let go of Rick's hand. Ah, shit. I let out a quiet sigh.
"Sam," Jessie asked quietly, "come on, come on."
Sam didn't move and seemed to be looking to cry.
"Sweetheart? Sam?"
"You can do it," Rick encouraged quietly.
"Yes you can. Sam. Sam, come on."
Sam wouldn't move, when we seriously needed to get moving. They repeatedly tried, including Ron. Sam was blind-sided by two walkers and bitten. I winced. I didn't like the kid, but damn.
The kid screamed, alerting the walkers. Sam cried out and Jessie did as well. Carl tried to bribe her into following, but she didn't move as she was bitten into.
"Dad," Carl grunted.
I looked over and witnessed as Carl struggled to get out of Jessie's grip. I went to help Carl quickly, but watched as Rick sliced Jessie's wrist off without hesitation. I let out a sigh, until I heard a gun click. I looked over to see Ron pointing a gun at my boys. I whipped out my knife and tackled Ron to the side—making him accidentally release a shot. I sliced his neck as he choked on his own blood.
"You're an idiot," I whispered harshly to him, "a complete idiot."
I climbed off him until I saw Carl fall to the ground. Everything turned into a white noise around me. I felt like I couldn't breathe. I was moving on auto-pilot it seemed as I followed after Michonne and Rick. We entered the medical house, which seemed ready for us already. Seeing Carl on the gurney, passed out and his eye blown to nothing made every nerve in my body collapse into one another.
I fell to the floor without much thought, not hearing anything around me. Every thought was blown out of proportion for me. There was no way I could think right. Carl was shot. My breathing turned heavy before I stormed out of the house and into the sea of walkers. I ripped my baseball bat from its holster as I just started tearing into the walkers. At some point I pulled out my knife and started slashing away as well.
I wasn't paying any attention to my surroundings. I was farther out than the others in the sea of walkers, just wailing on them. At some point my knife got stuck, so I just holstered my bat and started physically ripping off walker arms, and swinging them at heads. I even busted walker knee caps, kicked walkers in the chest and punched their heads through. I took no regard to my well being or anyone else. It was just pure animal instinct. At some point I let out a sorrowful cry, alerting more walkers to my position but having no care as I continued my path of war.
I looked behind me in my onslaught and saw the others were following after my path, taking down the stragglers that were headed for me. Rick and I made eye-contact and he nodded at me, letting me know to continue my path—and that's exactly what I did. It didn't take long for everyone to join me as I continued moving forward, my eyes narrowed at every walker as I easily smashed their brains through with my bare hands until we reached a wall then I turned and walked backwards while attacking.
I was covered in blood, none my own, but it was dripping from my hair and down my face. I'm sure I looked like a babe as we all worked together to kill the walkers. Until an explosion and fire attracted most of the walkers' attention and headed away from us. All the walkers started moving in the opposite direction of us, allowing us to head in that direction while killing them. I had switched my hands for my bat.

By morning, all the walkers were dead and the fire was slowly dying out. I was covered worse than the others in walker blood, but all I cared about was if Carl was okay. I sat alone on the curb, holding my head in my hands.
"Yo Red," Daryl called, exiting the house, "c'mere, gotta get you cleaned up."
"Not until Pipsqueak's awake," I croaked, "not until he's okay Dixie..."
I heard Daryl sigh, followed by his footsteps before he sat next to me. One look at my face had him pulling me to rest my head on his shoulder.
"Take it easy Red...kid'll be awake before you know it."
I heard two different sets of footsteps, recognizing them as Glenn and Maggie; they joined us on my other side. Maggie resting her head on my opposite shoulder and Glenn resting on her shoulder.